Think Like A Writer
There are few things that will cause me to leave a website or article faster than for it to read as if it were written by a five year old. If it is full of misspelled words, improper sentence structure, limited adjectives or if the author doesn't know how to use a period at the end of a sentence, it doesn't inspire authority or credibility.
Believe it or not, we are all writers. We may not be the next Ernest Hemingway or William Faulkner but we are writers and as such we need to be conscious about our writing. It's not enough to have knowledge about a subject or product, we need to write as if we have that knowledge.
Educate Yourself
Writing is probably new to most of us, especially to us newbies, so we find it a little intimidating. The best way to eliminate the intimidation factor is to educate ourselves and with the internet at our disposal it's easy to accomplish.
If English wasn't your favorite subject back in school or if you're just rusty, you can find resources on the internet to assist you. Also, it's a good idea to have easy access to the following reference material when you're writing:
- Dictionary
- Thesaurus
- Vocabulary Builder
You can find all of these items on the internet. I personally prefer the old-fashioned book in hand method. Merriam-Webster has a reference set that includes all three items and I also have Merriam-Webster's Guide to Punctuation and Style. I keep them within arms reach when I'm writing.
Proofreading
We are often in such a hurry to get our ideas down, that we make a lot of mistakes in the process and since we don't have well paid editors to proofread our work, it's up to each of us to double check our own work. I cannot emphasize this enough. Please proofread your work.
The beauty about our type of writing is that nothing is carved in stone. We are able to go back through even our published work and make corrections so don't be afraid to read through your published items with fresh eyes.
I hope this post has been helpful and I invite your comments and I hope my proofreading was successful.
Laura
Recent Comments
15
I agree! And to help, I highly recommend a free and amazing assistant called Grammarly. It does not negate proofreading but it just caught my "proof reading" and offered to change it to "proofreading" :) http://www.grammarly.com
Hi Laura,
Your comment on proofreading is a good reminder for me to review my blogs with fresh eyes. Even after they are published.
Thanks so much,
Lynn
Laura, yes I agree that spelling and grammar are very important. As you write, there's a variety of resources available to help us. Must be awful for people who are learning English though, and I commend them for making the effort.
I totally agree with you about spelling and grammatical errors. It's bad enough that we have to learn to write short sentences and paragraphs with no "big" words in them to make our websites "easy to read".
Laura, beautiful. Online marketing is about writing, and I write something everyday. To inspire or encourage someone along the way. Plus I'm writing a book about my life experiences. Great post!
I agree with you. At 65 I didn't learn texting, tweeting, etc. Teaching college I couldn't believe the kids that sent in papers as they would text on the phone. English apparently isn't taught in school anymore or not as I remembered. Was a real eye opening for both of us. Thank you for your blog.
It's unfortunate that basic English and writing skills aren't taught enough or properly. It's going to come back and bite us all eventually.
Thank you for your comment Mary.
Laura
Laura, I loved this blog you created and I completely agree with you. Proofreading is the greatest gift we can give ourselves as entrepreneurs and writers. I have been asked to look at several different websites already for friends and brand new members within Wealthy Affiliate and my biggest piece of advice is exactly what you just said. It drives me nuts when I see grammatical errors in the title! No no. It is such a no no. I have always enjoyed writing and I understand that sometimes it is hard to see your own mistakes when you write a lot within a short period of time but at least go back the next day and proofread. I also like to ask a friend to read over a few pages and/or posts within my website to help me see something I might have missed the first time.
I agree with you, proofreading is everything. If I go to a website hoping to be persuaded to buy something, I do not trust the sites that don't at least spellcheck. It doesn't look official or trustworthy to me. I also wish more people would proofread their comments when posting here or within your website. Once in awhile is understandable but some comments are simply impossible to read.
Oh and you did great, no errors! Loved your post. Hope you have a beautiful night : )
~Allison
Thank you Allison. Having a friend read your posts and pages is a great idea. A fresh set of eyes is always helpful.
You have a wonderful evening as well.
Laura
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Hear, hear!
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All the best,
Audrey